Alice
by TheDeadlyNightshade
Summary: The story of Alice that not even Alice knows.
1. Alice

He stood over me, smiling kindly, concern staring back at me from those dull crimson eyes--halfway between red and gold.

"My dear, i'm just here to help you. Do you know why you're here?"

"That would require me to know where 'here' is," I said, a bit waspishly. I tried to get up, but he put his hand on my shoulder.  
"I wouldn't. You just came to ten minutes ago--give yourself some time to recover."

"Recover from what, exactly?"

"You just came from Chicago Hospital--they found you passed out near a horrible accident. Do you remember that? The bus, and the train?"

"Kinda..."

"Yes, well, they took you from there to the hospital. After a while, you woke up and started raving about some dream you had. Scared Mrs. Mason out of her wits--apparently you dreamed about her son sucking the blood out of someone." He laughed. There was something about him, something... relaxing. I felt like I could trust him. "My name is Doctor Nathan Murphy, director of this fine establishment." He smiled a bit at the irony as I cast a look at the peeling paint, low light, and chipped floor tiles. "You were brought here because--well, because you spent the last two days screaming your head off about these dreams you say you keep having."

"Yeah... I've always had them. I dreamed about it--about the bus. The bus! I tried to help--" I was quickly becoming hysterical, my voice rising to a shout.

"Calm down, calm down! You're going to make yourself sick if you keep at that. Here, drink this, it'll help clear your head." He smiled and pushed a glass of water and some asprin toward me. Why don't we talk a bit?"

"Ugh... spinning..."

"That'll clear up in a few minutes. They had to sedate you. As soon as you heard Doctor Cullen was coming, you screamed bloody murder and we had to knock you out and bring you here." He gave a wry smile.

"You smile a lot."

"If you do what I do long enough, see what I see...you learn to be happy, or you crack under the pressure."

"Hmm..."

"So, Mary--"

"Alice."

"Hmm? Oh... I must have the wrong file. Let me just"  
"No, my name is 'Mary Alice Brandon'. Mary is too religious for me, so now I'm Alice."

"Fair enough. So, Alice, you're from Mississippi?"

"Yes."

"So what brings you all the way to Chicago?"

"I saw the bus accident happening. Most of the time when I see something, I just ignore it. It's not really my problem, is it? But this time... I saw it all play out in my head, like normal. The bus hit the train. The train went off the tracks. Everyone on both the bus and the train died. That, I could have lived with. But the train... it hit some houses, didn't it? And now those people, the ones that don't have anywhere else to go, are going to catch the flu. They're going to die. That's almost a thousand people, in the end..." I saw his look of astonishment. "I see things. I'm not crazy!"

"Well, why don't we get you evaluated, see what's going on, good or bad, hmm?"

"I'm not crazy!"

"It's not often that people can see things like you say. I'm not saying you're crazy, I'm saying I want to get you checked out so I can have something to put down on the forms, okay?"

I sighed.

"So, why did you come here? To stop the bus accident?"

"I was going to try to hold the bus driver up for a while. When that didn't work, I started yelling for everyone to get off the bus. Only one person did, nobody else wanted to get out in the rain, nobody--wait! It was you. You were the person that listened! What the hell is going on here?"

He leaned down and whispered in my ear, "You will understand... in a while. You saved me a great deal of trouble--I wouldn't even begin to know how to explain how I was the sole survivor of such a huge accident."

"What the HELL are you talking about?"

"Shh..."

I felt a pinch on my arm, and the dizziness came back with full force. As I lost conciousness, I thought I heard him say something, but I was too confused to understand.


	2. Revelations

Hiatus:

It's dark. Why is it so dark? Can't they even give me a stupid light in this place? And I could hear voices. The real kind, standing outside my door, not the kind that most of the people here could hear.

A female voice was talking: "Dr. Murphy, I'm sorry, but I just got this message from Dr. Cullen. He's gone to help the...victims." She said it like they'd _deserved_ to get a train in their living rooms.

Somebody sighed. "Very well then. Thank you."

My door rattled, then opened. Dr. Murphy stepped through. "Hello, Alice," he said. "Unfortunately, Carlisle isn't going to be available... That's a shame. You'd have liked him."

"I'm still waiting for an explanation about what you meant, earlier," I said. "And why are your eyes a different color, now? Eyes don't just change from red to blue. Hell, they're not even usually red in the first place."

He sighed again. "I had rather hoped you hadn't noticed that, in the dark. No matter... I said I would tell you... I had rather planned to wait until afterward, but I don't think Aro will care much, as long as it happens."

"Okay," I interrupted angrily, "who is Aro, who are _you_, what the hell is going on here?"

"Calm down," he laughed. "I am, as I've said, Dr. Nathan Murphy. I am also, as I've not said... a vampire."


	3. Decision

It was a really stange dream. Not the first that I've had, not by a long shot. But definitely one of the clearest.

I rolled over. The threadbare mattress squeaked a little. It wouldn't be long, now. Less than a few minutes.

I heard from outside the door a woman talking. "Dr. Murphy, I'm sorry, but I just got this message from Dr. Cullen. He's gone to help the... victims." I sighed. There goes the hope that it was just a weird dream.

The door opened. I decided not to even give him the opportunity. He started to greet me, but I just cut him off.

"Ok, Dr. Murphy. Who is Aro, who is Dr. Cullen, who the hell are iyou/i, and why am I here? And what the hell do you mean you're a 'vampire?'"

He just stared. "I knew you were perceptive, Alice... but this is amazing. You'll make an amazing addition to the family.  
Family? Did he say 'family?' "Whose family? And what if I don't want to be added to any family?

"Oh, but you will, Alice! I'm offering you immortality! Do you understand that? Immortality!"

"At what cost?" I screamed at him. He was cornering me, backing me against the wall. "At what cost, Nathan?"

"I'm Nathan now, am I?" He said. A cold look crossed his face. "Think about this, Alice. Think carefully. I will not offer this again. You have a gift--a gift that will only be amplified in immortality."

"This is nonsense. Absolute nonsense."

With a flash, he was appeared behind me. He lifted my bed above his head, and twirled it on finger. "Nonsense? NONSENSE? I'm offering you the world!" He grabbed my throat. "You feel my skin. You see my eyes. You see my strength, my speed, my power. You iknow/i what I am. I could give you this."

"At. What. Cost. Nathan. Do you expect me to run around and kill people just so I don't have to die?"

"No, Alice. You should hear Carlisle talk. He's been feeding on animals for centuries! It doesn't ihave/i to be like that!"

"You're insane. Must be why you work here. Go home, I won't join you."

"Well. It seems I cannot persuade you," he said, his posture utterly still and deathly cold in his voice. Maybe I can introduce someone who can? Please, come in, James.


End file.
